Tuesday night Seattle’s Funhouse hosted a punk band all the way from Crete called Barb Wire Dolls. I saw the Dolls about a year and a half ago opening for Dead Men Walking, a sort of super group featuring members of the Living End, the Alarm, and the Stray Cats. I was so blown away …
A new and imaginative microbrewery, the Labrewatory on NE Russell Street, has arrived on the scene in Portland. The owners, Chris Sears, Patrick Walsh, and Joe Watzig, invite larger brewers in the area to use their four-barrel system to experiment with recipes that would be more expensive to attempt on their larger-scale equipment. The Labrewatory …
Saturday night November 12, Seattle’s foremost punk club El Corazon hosted Canadian punk legends D.O.A. Talk about raw punk power! This trio came out churning power chords and smashing drums like they were still 20 years old. Drummer goes by the name Paddy Duddy and reminded me of Animal from the Muppets with his scraggily …
At a time when diversions from real life seem more welcome than usual, it is a pleasure to announce the start of the NBA season and the return of the Portland Trail Blazers to the Moda Center. Last Friday, the Blazers took on the Sacramento Kings in a tight, high-scoring contest that went into overtime …
Jeanne Clery was raped and murdered in her dorm room at Lehigh University by a fellow student in 1986. Her distraught parents came to believe that Lehigh had not taken sufficient efforts to keep its college campus safe, and lobbied for legislative action. In 1990, Congress passed what is commonly known as “The Clery Act.” …
Thursday November 10 brought LA Ska/funk masters Fishbone back to Seattle. Their first concert here in more than two years. The show was a sell out and Seattle’s Crocodile Café was packed. Fishbone is a very eclectic band as well as versatile Front man Angelo Moore played about three different types of saxophones and an …
The best of the best. Doctorate level Pop Culture Recombination studies:
On the evening of November 3, the Showbox Sodo hosted the triumphant and long awaited Seattle return of California punks NOFX. Lead singer/front man Fat Mike came out sporting a mohawk along with a short kilt and a new Bush/Quayle t-shirt. The significance of the latter was a mystery since much of the band’s songs …
The evening after Halloween brought dance macabre to El Corazon starring the Nekromantix. Singer Kim Nekroman, with his coffin shaped bass, held said bass above his head, held it like a guitar or straddled it all without missing a lick. On several occasions he even licked it. And he had high pitched screams down to …
Last Friday, I watched a bit of the Cubs victory celebration in Chicago. I’m not really a parade person, but seeing it I wished I was there. City says 5 MILLION turned out. I admit I got a little misty seeing the throngs in my various old haunts: Wrigley, LSD, the Boul Mich, Grant Park. …
No, the title is not a misprint. In fact, this post is mostly an excuse to write that line, which has been so long in coming. One person with extra motivation to be happy today is Aroldis Chapman, who escaped by the narrowest of margins the fate of becoming the latest victim of the Billy …
Tickets to the World Series at Wrigley are starting at nearly $2,000 just to get into the park. If you want a place to sit down, start talking at $2,500: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2016/10/23/chicago-cubs-win-sets-stage-for-most-expensive-world-series-tickets-in-baseball-history/#3f872de55eab For many, the price is worth it. You can hear from some of them here: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Want-to-see-World-Series-at-Wrigley-It-will-cost-10174338.php If the Cubs win, we may never see …
Who would have thought that Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw would show up to Game 6 of the National League Championship Series without his curveball? It didn’t take long for the Chicago Cubs to figure out that he couldn’t throw it for strikes, and they wasted little time in taking advantage, running up a …
For years, Angel Hernández has drawn my score as worst ump in the Majors. I think he may be a rare case where replay has helped the ump. It used to be, any time that a call that he made was questioned and was very close, any argument at all would result in an ejection. …
Barron’s (Barrons.com) is a weekly newspaper devoted solely to stocks and the financial markets. My Dad passes along old issues to me. The October 17th edition contains a four page article that is based on responses Barron’s received from its “Big Money” poll about the 2017 financial market outlook and upcoming election. The article does …
On October 11 I ventured out to El Corazon to see LA’s the Interrupters headline their own show. And what a show it was. This ska/pop/punk quartet riles up the audience by standing on the monitors, or leaning into the crowd. This is particularly done by front woman/singer Aimee Interrupter. She constantly leaned into the …
On October 5th I had the utmost pleasure of seeing Robyn Hitchcock play at an old converted church, now Fremont Abbey Arts Center. This was a very intimate show, almost like having him play in your living room. He played two sold out nights. Robyn’s songs combine quirky, humorous lyrics with catchy melodies. This was …
As one who once loudly proclaimed my Dylan hatred, I thought it was wonderfully apt. A pleasant surprise from the Nobel committee rather than a cause for the usual mystifying Googling of an author I’ll never read. Here is a writer who actually means something to the lives of people all over the world in …
The ninth inning of last night’s Game 4 of the recently concluded series between the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs was as brutal a finish to a game as I’ve ever witnessed. Five Giant relief pitchers combined to cough up four runs and render what had been a 5-2 lead into a 6-5 …
Last Saturday, Oct first, Seattle’s Highline Tavern hosted the Skatoberfest featuring five ska acts. The headliners this time was the Seattleites. This was my second time seeing them in a week, but they’ve already grown as a band. Added this time were some amazing vocalists with personality to boot. Their main singer (Joseph Quinone) not …
It’s a good thing I don’t make my living as a prophet. I expected last night’s Giants/Mets game to go something like this: Madison Bumgarner would give up a run or two early, as he often does when settling into a game, and that would have been the difference as Noah Syndergaard pitched another shutout. …
The San Francisco Giants, as they did in 2014, managed to slip into the very last available postseason spot and earn themselves a road trip for a do-or-die playoff. With five wins out of their last six games, they are looking better of late than for most of the season since the All-Star Break. Even …
Vin Scully, who spent 67 years as the voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, announced his last game yesterday at AT&T Park. I’m not sure what is more astounding about his career: that he set an unbreakable record for longevity or that he did so with undiminished sharpness at 88 years old. His …
Hitch, A Wild Ride or Hitch, A Musical in 13 Parts A review of The Joy Formidable’s Latest Album By Peter Dysart As a preface, this album was released six months ago and from the week of its release, I’ve been listening intently. As the band’s third full release, Hitch was immediately a bit of …
On Sunday, we got a definitive evaluation of Chip Kelly’s San Francisco 49ers, and the news wasn’t good. Their loss to the Seahawks in Seattle wasn’t nearly as close as the final 37-18 score, since the Niners scored their two touchdowns in what was essentially garbage time in the fourth quarter. The Seahawks, who had …
Here’s how David Åhlén begins the one sheet for his new album, Hidden Light. The whole work is lovely. Check out the video above or the album sampler below: It’s 2016 and the world is (still) in darkness. Big or small, the hurt is hurting everyone and this does not simply passes by David Åhlén …
Hope Sandoval and The Warm Inventions will release their highly anticipated third album, Until The Hunter on November 4th. In advance of that happy day, the Warm Inventions – comprising Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and My Bloody Valentine’s Colm O’Coisog – are releasing the first single from the album on all digital platforms. “Let Me …
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. –Dylan Thomas The San Francisco Giants’ even-year championship dynasty is coming to an end. It may seem premature to write their epitaph with two weeks left in the season, …
One of my sources tells me that Cub mania is heating up in Chi-town, “I’m seeing a lot more Cub attire these days, just like when the Hawks started their great run of success I saw sooooo many new Hawk fans. This town will explode if the Cubs win the WS. The other day a …